Well the gas thing is complicated. Nearly every middle european country heavily relied on russian gas bc it was so damn cheap and gave them a competitive advantage. Europe was like a junkie on the needle “oh its not so bad nothing will happen”. But the invasion was a wake up call, and action was taken. There is still much to do, dont get me wrong, but we have come a long way. Russian invasion finally paved the way to collective european action and acquisitions on the gas market and that has helped to prevent blackouts (that Russia no doubt wanted) and tame the insane prices we had for a while a little. Thing is, there isnt many good reliable options for the amounts of gas europe needs. Norway stepped in big time (and they are the only really reliable and democratic country delivering large quantities). Middle east countries come with their own problems and unreliablities and american LNG is very expensive bc of transport (and building LNG terminals in the capacity now required takes time). In the long run, we just need to use less fossil fuels and more renewables, but that cant be done in a year or even 10 years.
Well the gas thing is complicated. Nearly every middle european country heavily relied on russian gas bc it was so damn cheap and gave them a competitive advantage. Europe was like a junkie on the needle “oh its not so bad nothing will happen”. But the invasion was a wake up call, and action was taken. There is still much to do, dont get me wrong, but we have come a long way. Russian invasion finally paved the way to collective european action and acquisitions on the gas market and that has helped to prevent blackouts (that Russia no doubt wanted) and tame the insane prices we had for a while a little. Thing is, there isnt many good reliable options for the amounts of gas europe needs. Norway stepped in big time (and they are the only really reliable and democratic country delivering large quantities). Middle east countries come with their own problems and unreliablities and american LNG is very expensive bc of transport (and building LNG terminals in the capacity now required takes time). In the long run, we just need to use less fossil fuels and more renewables, but that cant be done in a year or even 10 years.